Project for Development of National Waterway-4 Launched

The Central Government launched the project for the development of the stretch of 37 km of the National Waterway-four (NW-4) between Sholinganallur to Kalpakkam in South Buckingham Canal in Tamil Nadu.

Lengths of Individual Stretches (NW-4) Stretch Length in km Kakinada canal 50 Eluru canal 139 Krishna river section 157 Godavari river section 171 Commamur canal 113 North Buckingham canal 316 South Buckingham canal 110 Marakkanam-Pondicherry section 22 Total 1095

• Main components of the project: To search and excavate for developing navigational channel, construct three terminals and navigational locks, replace the one existing bridge at Kelambakkam, and install the navigational aids.
• Sanctioned over Rs.123 crore for the purpose and the project is expected to be completed in two years.
• Other stretches of the NW-4 would cover the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
• NW-4 covers a total length of 1,078 Km consisting of Kakinada-Puducherry canal systems integrated with Godavari and KrishnaRivers. 

Benefits of National Waterway-4 project

• Improve the drainage system during flood season in Chennai city.
• Suitable for safe navigation of cargo vessels up to 300 ton capacity for transportation of general cargo viz. food grain, fertilizers, building materials, etc.
• Suitable for movement of the passenger and tourist vessels of higher capacity from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and in future upto Puducherry and vice versa.
• The terminals at Shollinganallur, Mutukkad and Mahabalipuram have been planned for construction and will be operated with necessary facilities for cargo, passenger and tourist vessels.